Friday, July 10, 2009

With an upcoming hearing in Washington to evaluate the Real ID Act next week, Lee Tien articulates the standard for acceptable identity in America. Here's a hint: the Real ID Act is not part of the plan.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

WASHINGTON -The first hearing to discuss efforts to repeal the Real ID Act is scheduled next Wednesday at 10:00 AM. Murmurs from organizers behind the scenes conclude that PASS Act proponents only will be invited to join DHS Senate Committee hearing, January 15th. According to ACLU sources, S.1261's opponents are managing their expectations about the upcoming DHS Senate committee hearing and of the PASS Act in discussions.

"It’s certainly not uncommon for opponents of legislation that a committee supports to be excluded from hearings. Though usually, they’re simply put on a second, smaller panel and are subject to much harsher questioning from members. Either way, you can usually tell how a committee feels about particular legislation by the composition and order of panels during a hearing," said Mary Bonventre. As of yesterday afternoon the ACLU has not yet received an invitation to the hearing.

Other civil liberties and privacy groups continue to express skepticism about how the hearing will be handled by DHS Chair, Joe Lieberman.

"The idea that the hearing is about re-evaluation of Real ID is the propaganda Akaka, Lieberman, DHS and everyone wants people to believe," says Stop Real ID Coalition advocate, Mark Lerner. "This is why Stewart Baker is being allowed to testify."

Baker, employed by DHS, is rumored to be skeptical himself over the PASS Act's regulations to perform national security functions. While Real ID opponent, Center for Democracy & Technology is expected to extoll the virtues of compromise presented in the PASS Act.

The PASS Act doesn't yet meet the standards of longtime electronic privacy advocate, Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) or of the Senate chairman's performance on the issue.

"Put another way, congressional hearings are staged performances. Here it is being controlled by Lieberman, and he ruined PASS ID," says Tien, who found less fault with the legislation "before Lieberman got hold of it."

The DHS Senate Committee has neither confirmed or denied whether the PASS Act will be brought up for discussion during the hearing. The hearing was scheduled to re-evaluate the effectiveness of Real ID as a legislation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Wednesday to require actual fencing along 700 miles of the border with Mexico rather than vehicle barriers and high-tech equipment.

The plan by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., won approval by a 54-44 vote as the Senate began a second day of debate on a $42.9 billion measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

DeMint said the U.S.-Mexico border "has become a battleground" as drug and weapons traffickers, along with illegal immigrants, move too freely. He said the department is spending too much on "virtual" fencing such as motion detectors. Those barriers, he said, don't work as well as a real fence designed to block people crossing the border on foot.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Taragana.com/WASHINGTON - Biologists have determined that a 700-mile security wall under construction along the United States’ border with Mexico could significantly alter the movement and “connectivity” of wildlife, with the animals’ potential isolation a threat to populations of some species.

However, technology and alterations to the design could dramatically improve the potential for animals to move more freely between the two countries, the scientists added.

“The biggest concern is that this barrier will break small populations of animals into even smaller pieces that will result in fewer animals interacting,” said Clinton Epps, a wildlife biologist at Oregon State University and co-author on the study.

“A major barrier such as this could lead to significant degradation of connectivity for many different species, ultimately threatening their populations,” he added.

In their study, the authors looked at the potential effects of the security wall on two species - the pygmy owl and bighorn sheep.

They found that the low-flying pygmy owl made three-fourths of its flights below the height of the security wall, which is approximately four meters high, and that juvenile owls had lower colonization in areas of disturbance or areas with less vegetation. ::MORE HERE::

One stark example carried in the film, is the incorporation of propagandized vocabulary, like the word "harmonize" to directly affect trade barriers. This translates to lowering Canadian standards over many things including the use of pesticides with crops and food.

While it mimics other youthful, 9-11 Truth documentaries flooding the web and grassroots media, it brings a distinct experience of Canada's open recognition of the challenges to it's sovereignty. This is identified right down to the Amero currency and a new continental identity in line with the Western Hemisphere Travel initiative.

You should always care how accessible you are to others to whom you have no relationship. Unless you benefit directly from the information racket, you are a resigned, apathetic, lazy, reckless, socially irresponsible slob with no identity standards and are complicit to living with no rights. You shouldn't be making decisions for the rest of us who haven't quit.

By the way, if needlessly shoveling over your information without compensation has benefitted you; we definitely want to hear your story! Please send your stories to beathechip@gmail.com . Please include the name of your employer and what you do for a living.

The U.S. census is wrapping up preparations for making next year’s count, which will use a communications network and support provided by Sprint Nextel.

Sprint was picked in 2006 by Harris Corp., the systems integrator for the census, to be the exclusive wireless data provider and to provide both wireline and wireless support.

The resulting automated system is expected to increase the accuracy and efficiency of next year’s count, in part by using handheld devices that will transmit the collected data almost instantly to the Census Bureau over the Sprint network.

“As a result of the combined solutions and technology provided by Sprint and Harris, the 2010 decennial census is expected to be the most accurate in U.S. history,” Mike Murray, vice president of Harris Census Programs, said in a statement.

Census information was previously collected manually by workers, including relying on paper address lists and maps. But besides sending the data, the handheld devices can also verify addresses using GPS. The automated system developed for the census will for the first time make the canvassing virtually paperless.

In addition, Sprint is providing other support for the census, including security, program management and data centers that will help provide the infrastructure needed to collect the census information.

“Sprint is honored to play a critical role in this historic evolution of the decennial census program for 2010,” said Bill White, vice president for federal programs at Sprint.

Monday, July 6, 2009

At around noon on July 5, EST, a phone call, from a verifiable source, was received by a member of former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's camp indicating that the American prisoners in Israel have been moved to a detainment facility closer to the Ben Gurion Airport.

McKinney's imprisonment has shed additional light upon the plight of Gaza – which is one of two possible results of her trip – the other one being that supplies and a little joy for the children might have actually been delivered.

Either way, it's a step toward healing Gaza. And the Palestinians, observing the commitment of the humanitarians to delivering aid, see that some of the world cares.::MORE HERE::

The PASS Act, S. 1261, a heavily compromised legislation which allows the majority of the Real ID Act to stay in place is moving toward a DHS Senate committee hearing in Washington, D.C.

After proving time and again that the technologies used [RFID, facial recognition biometrics, and fusion center databases] have a high failure rate in substantiating, retaining and protecting identity, we should not be required to accept inadequate standards for federalizing U.S. identity to redundance in the PASS Act or the Real ID Act.

The people of the United States are still being asked to sponsor the surveillance of their own identity in the name of immigration control and terrorism prevention . Even a casual look into the logic of mandating identity for Americans cannot guarantee an above board use of systems in the compromised identity and immigrations racketeering which sustains much of the blackmarket immigrant labor at large in the U.S. states.

There are incomplete and obscured grounds to prove identity was linked to illegal immigration and terrorism based on the 9-11 Commission reccomendations. Terrorists involved in the attacks were here on legal visas granted by U.S. immigration. One visa was renewed 6 months after a hijackers suicide in the WTC towers.

Don't allow misappropriation of your identity to lead to an inescapable surveilled lifestyle based on the U.S. current plan for identity in the PASS Act and the Real ID Act.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Home Secretary had been scheduled to make a low-key announcement, abandoning plans for ID card trials at two airports which would have made carrying them compulsory for some pilots and airline staff.

After doing so, however, he went much further and declared: "I want the introduction of identity cards for all British citizens to be voluntary."

A government source said: "Number 10 knew Alan was going to make the airports announcement. But they had no idea he would simply tear up the entire policy as far as compulsory cards were concerned."

With Cynthia McKinney due to appear in an Israeli court Sunday, the mother of the former congresswoman decided to skip a weekend family reunion in Alabama just in case State Department officials need any documents to get her released from jail.

McKinney has been in custody since Tuesday when she and 20 others were swept up by the Israeli Navy while allegedly trying to sail through a navy blockade. The group says it was attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

Bill banning forced identity-chip implants clears House

HARRISBURG - Invasion of privacy is an issue that really gets under State Rep. Babette Josephs' skin.

That's why the Philadelphia Democrat introduced a bill, passed unanimously last week by the House, that would ban the forced implantation of computer chips in humans.

Conjuring Orwellian images, Josephs worries the identification devices - the size of a grain of rice - could lead to a real-life Big Brother nightmare.

"I'm doing, I think, what the legislature does too little of," she said. "This is a problem on the horizon, and I want to address it before it becomes a societal disgrace."

Though the technology hasn't debuted in Pennsylvania, VeriChip, a company in Florida, received federal Food and Drug Administration clearance in 2004 to market the implanted microchips, which were tested on 200 Alzheimer's patients.

Injected into the triceps, the chips have unique 16-digit codes and GPS capabilities that allow nursing homes to find wandering patients.

"I think it's really horrible that we want to chip them like barcoded packages of meat," said Kim Sultzbaugh, a research specialist who helped Josephs write the bill.

California, North Dakota, and Wisconsin have enacted laws similar to the ban Josephs is proposing.

The technology can also be used for security, as in a widely reported case in Mexico. There, the implants were required for some government employees to enter restricted buildings.

A bar in Scotland even offers to implant patrons with chips that allow them to purchase pints without a credit card, according to news accounts.

Despite the technology's potential usefulness, Sultzbaugh said, some Christian groups liken the identification devices to the "mark of the beast," a Satanic mark described in the Book of Revelation and represented by the number 666.

Josephs said electronic ankle bracelets could keep track of someone in a less-invasive manner.

But for some "murderers, killers, and rapists," ankle bracelets won't do the trick, said State Rep. Dan Moul (R., Adams).

Moul amended Josephs' bill to allow chips to be implanted by court order. The bill also would allow the chips to be implanted in Guantanamo Bay detainees who end up in Pennsylvania.

"Terrorists could take that ankle bracelet off with a saw and strap it to a dog and let them run around," Moul said. "We need to know if these people are returning to the war to fight against America."

Josephs called Moul's changes "inflammatory" and "sensational" and hopes the Senate throws them out when it considers the measure.